Angus Fairhurst

69 South Audley Street, London W1

For his third solo show at Sadie Coles HQ Angus Fairhurst presents a group of new sculptures and large-scale paintings. The new paintings are spatial schematics for imagined sites of desire. Occupied with the notion of terrain vague, the interstitial spaces that represent both disorder and opportunity in an urban environment that is increasingly standardized and regulated, Fairhurst imparts a belief in the potential of space while acknowledging its contested nature.  Incorporated into the paintings are advertising posters, of the type found in bus shelters and underground stations, with much of the information stripped away. Both violent and erotic, the spaces so created become gaps allowing transformation and fantasy.

The new sculptures are also concerned with the creation of and projection into space by means of gaps as material. One piece literally has the middle smashed out of it, a resin reproduction of a ‘To Let’ sign, a jagged outline framing vacant space. In contrast, made by means of building up, another work, a bronze cast of a moment of intimacy between a man and a tree, is an almost abstract composite of energetic gestures, layering and mashing: a counterpart coming into being. 

As in earlier work, Fairhurst incorporates found imagery from multiple sources, distancing himself from the work’s elements at the same time as he fuses them, the handmade mark as discernible as the mechanical. All of the new pieces are innately connected, idiomatic fluctuations between themes of space, desire, creativity, destruction and renewal. With material from advertising and art history, Fairhurst plays on iconographic congruities between the two, presenting a complex composition of interior and exterior worlds.

Angus Fairhurst was born in 1966 in Kent, England.  He lives in London, England. His work has been exhibited widely including as part In the darkest hour there may be light: Works from Damien Hirst’s Murderme Collection, Serpentine Gallery, London, 2006; In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida, Tate Britain, London, 2004; Century City: Art and Culture in the Modern Metropolis, Tate Modern, London, 2001; The Anagrammatical Body, Neue Landesmuseum, Graz, Austria; Brilliant, Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis, 1995; as well as the seminal Freeze, PLA Building, London; 1988. Solo shows include one at Spacex Gallery, Exeter, 2001; More or Less Angus Fairhurst, Sadie Coles HQ, London, 2001; This Does Not Last More Than Ten Seconds, Kunsthalle St Gallen, Switzerland, 2001; and The Missing Link, Sadie Coles HQ, London, 1998.  A new book on the artist’s work, with texts by Sasha Craddock and Harland Miller will be published in the late spring 2008 by Phillips.

For further information or images please contact Julia Holdway on +44 [0] 20 7434 2227 or

N.B. opening hours Tuesday – Saturday 11am – 6pm

This exhibition of works on paper by Angus Fairhurst presents a series of drawings and proposals (negations and affirmations), which together stand as a methodology for making and breaking form.

Shown in three sections within a cycle of developing ideas, the works range from written proposals, erased postcards and collages to sketches for animations. Three short text animations are also included. The whole charts a formal progression, beginning with works where the image is made by removing elements of or obliterating found imagery and ending with works built up by adding and layering repeated elements.

Angus Fairhurst’s most recent animation Normal / Distorted / Superimposed was exhibited in ‘Apocalypse’ at the Royal Academy, and will also be shown in an animation exhibition at PS1 in New York in May of this year.  Fairhurst has one-person exhibitions in April at the Verein Kunsthalle St. Gallen and Spacex in Exeter, in May at China Art Objects in Los Angeles, and is included in Casino at the Gemeente Museum in Gent in October.

1966 Born in Kent

1985-86 Canterbury Art College, Kent
1986-89 Goldsmith’s College, London

Solo Exhibitions

2006 Angus Fairhurst, Grimm Fine Art, Amsterdam
Unwit, Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York
2005 Notnot, Vacio 9, Madrid
2004 Unwork, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin
Dysuniversal, Georg Kargl, Vienna
Drunkenmasters (Angus Fairhurst, Liam Gillick, Cerith Wyn Evans), Galeria Fortes Vilaça, São Paolo, Brazil
In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida (with Sarah Lucas and Damien Hirst), Tate Britain, London (cat.)
2002 Angus Fairhurst, Alphadelta Gallery – Artio Gallery, Athens
2001 This Does Not Last More Than One Second, Spacex Gallery, Exeter, England
More or Less Angus Fairhurst, Sadie Coles HQ, London
Angus Fairhurst More or Less, China Art Objects Gallery, Los Angeles (CA)
This Does Not Last More Than Ten Seconds, Kunsthalle St Gallen, St Gallen, Switzerland
1999 The Trouble with Comedy, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin Art Fair, Berlin
The Foundation, Ursula Blickle Stiftung, Kraichtal, Germany (cat.) and
Kunsthalle St.Gallen, St Gallen, Switzerland
1998 The Missing Link, Sadie Coles HQ, London
Standing Stock Still, Anton Kern Gallery, New York
Odd-Bod Photography (with Sarah Lucas), Sadie Coles HQ, London and Kolnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, Germany
1997 Stand Still and Rot, Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin
1996 Low Lower Lowest, Jay Jopling/White Cube, London
The Artist Has Left (with Lothar Hempel), Anton Kern Gallery, New York
A Cheap and Ill-fitting Relationship, Paul Andriesse Gallery, Amsterdam
A False Dawn On The Road To Personal And Artistic Freedoms,
Ridinghouse Editions, London
1994 Gallery Connections, Karsten Schubert Ltd., London
Drawings and Cartoons, 71 Hartham Road, London
1993 All Evidence of Man Removed, Karsten Schubert Ltd., London
1992 Man Abandoned by Space, Galerie Analix, Geneva, Switzerland (cat.)
1991 Some Went Mad, Some Ran Away, Karsten Schubert Ltd., London
1990 You in Mind, Karsten Schubert Ltd., London

Selected Group Exhibitions

2006 Nothing but Pleasure, Bawag Foundation, Vienna
Prints, Sadie Coles HQ, London
Implosion: 10th Anniversary Exhibition, Anton Kern Gallery, New York
Dada’s Boys, The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh
Survivor, Bortolami Dayan, New York
Dark, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands
2005 Bazar de Verão, Galeria Fortes Vilaça, São Paolo, Brazil
Cross Section, Paul Kasmin Gallery, New York
Threshold, MW Projects, London
Vertigo, Sudeley Castle, Winchcombe, Gloucestershire, England
Y[oung] B[ritish] A[rtists] Criss-Crossed, Galleri Kaare Bernsten, Oslo
Out of the Melting Pot, Dexia Banque Internationale à Luxembourg, Luxembourg
2004 Summer Exhibition, Royal Academy, London (cat.)
Collage, Bloomberg SPACE, London
Incommunicado, City Art Centre, Edinburgh
57th Aldeburgh Festival, Contemporary British Sculpture at Snape (Angus Fairhurst, Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas), Snape, England
2003 Trickfilm, Buchmann Galerie, Cologne, Germany
Sterling Stuff: Fifty Sculptors, Sigurjon Olafsson Museum, Reykjavik and Royal Academy of Arts, London
In Retrospect: Thirty Sculptors, Gallery Pangolin, Chalford, England
2002 Sterling Stuff: Fifty Sculptors, Gallery Pangolin, Chalford, England
Generator, Spacex Gallery, Exeter, England
Iconoclast: Beyond the Image Wars, ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany (cat.)
`Why Bother?’ The Burger King Exhibition, Burger King, London (cat.)
Man in the Middle, Sammlung Deutsche Bank, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
The Unblinking Eye: Lens-based work from the IMMA Collection, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin
2001 Casino 2001, S.M.A.K. Gent, Belgium (cat) Open Plan P3 – The Marathon (curated by Sofia and Dimitria Vamiali), Alphadelta Gallery – Artio Gallery, Athens (cat.)
Animations, P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center, New York
Alternative Currents, The Mac, McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Dallas
Century City: Art and Culture in the Modern Metropolis, Tate Modern, London (cat)
Lens and Paper – the Beauty of Intimacy, Gemeentemuseum, The Hague and tour to Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden and Museum Haus am Waldsee, Berlin (cat.)
2000Apocalypse, The Royal Academy, London (cat.)
Video-vibe, British School in Rome, Rome (cat.)
00, Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York (cat.)
Body Beautiful, Galerie Jennifer Flay, Paris
Puerile 69: Angus Fairhurst, Michael Landy, Sarah Lucas, Gillian
Wearing, The Living Art Museum, Reykjavik (cat.)
About Collage, Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, England (cat.)
Sanssouci Oder: Die Kunst Der Entsorgung, Badischer Kunstverein, Karlsruhe, Germany (cat.)
The Anagrammatical Body, ZKM Centre for Media Art and Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
Sex and the British, Galerie Thaddeaus Ropac, Salzburg, Austria and Paris
Hoxton HQ, Sadie Coles HQ at Hoxton House, London
Psycho, Art and Anatomy, Anne Faggionato, London
1999 Art Lovers, Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool, England
Gallery Swap, Sadie Coles HQ at Contemporary Fine Arts, Berlin
The Anagrammatical Body, Neue Landesmuseum, Graz, Austria
1998 Thinking Aloud, Kettle’s Yard, Cambridge and tour to Camden Arts Centre, London (cat.)
Maximum Diversity, Galerie Krinzinger in den Benger Fabrik,
Bregenezand Atelierhaus der Akademie der Bildenden Kunste,
Vienna (cat.)
Crossings, Kunst Zum Horen und Sehen, Kunsthalle, Vienna (cat.) (touring exhibition)
1997 Dimensions Variable, British Council Touring Exhibition (cat.)
Package Holiday, Hydra Workshops, Hydra, Greece (cat.)
Painting, Photography, Drawing, Anton Kern Gallery, New York
Contemporary British Drawings, Sandra Gering Gallery, New York, and
Galerie Paul Andriesse, Amsterdam
Other Men’s Flowers, The British School in Rome, Rome
From Figure to Object, Karsten Schubert Ltd. and Frith Street Gallery,
London (cat.)
1996 Plastic, Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol and tour to Walsall Museum and Art
Gallery, Walsall, England (cat.)
Full House, Kunstmuseum, Wolfsburg, Germany
Domestic Violence, Rhona Hoffmann Gallery, Chicago (IL)
A Small Shifting Sphere of Serious Culture, ICA, London and tour
(video programme)
Other Men’s Flowers, Aurel Scheibler, Cologne, Germany
1995 Brilliant! New Art From London, Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis (MI), touring to Contemporary Art Museum, Houston (TX) (cat.)
Corpus Delicti, Portalen, Copenhagen (cat.)
1994 Karaoke Football, Portikus No 58, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Some Went Mad, Some Ran Away, Serpentine Gallery, London, touring
to Nordic Arts Centre, Helsinki; Kunstverein, Hanover, Germany; Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (IL) (cat.)
Not Self Portrait, Karsten Schubert Ltd., London
1993 Privacy, Opos, Milan, Italy (cat.)
Other Men’s Flowers, Factual Nonsense, London
1992 Twenty Fragile Pieces, Galerie Analix, Geneva, Switzerland (cat.)
Etats Specifiques, Musée des Beaux Arts, Le Havre, France (cat.)
Mat Collishaw, Angus Fairhurst, Abigail Lane, Viafarini, Milan, Italy (cat.)
1991 Gambler, Building One, London (cat.)
Modern Medicine, Building One, London (cat.)
1988 Freeze, PLA Building, London (cat.)

Performances

2001 Kunsthalle St. Gallen, Switzerland
Exeter Phoenix
1999 Lowest Expectations, The Scala, London
Lowest Expectations, British Council, Cologne, Germany
Lower Expectations, Ursula Bickle Stiftung, Kraichtal, Germany
1998 Low Expectations, BuroFriedrich, Berlin
Low Expectations, Flex, Vienna
1997 Top Ten Expectations, ICA, London
Low Expectations, Cable Factory, Helsinki
1996 Low Expectations, Dean Street, London
Lexopewctations, Anton Kern Gallery, New York
1995 Low Expectations, Brixton Academy, London
Low Expectations, 56a Clerkenwell Road, London

Collections

Tate Gallery, London
Walker Art Centre, Minneapolis (MI)
Simmons & Simmons, London
European Parliament
EVN Austria
Government Art Collection, London
Celebrity Cruises Art Collection